Editorial Commentary

College Loans: The New Debt Bubble

College students are borrowing their way to prosperity.

For high school seniors applying to competitive colleges, April can be the cruelest month. The mail may bring college rejections. It may bring the equally painful news that a college will accept a student but refuse to give sufficient financial aid. "Take a loan" is the answer, but then the cruelty lasts all year and for many years after, because financing a college education has become a source of continuous pain for students and their parents.

Four years of living on campus and paying out-of-pocket for tuition,...